Force India interview with Vijay Mallya

Adrian Sutil really put Force India and Kingfisher on the
map with his brilliant performance in Monaco, which sadly ended after he
was knocked out of fourth place by World Champion Kimi Raikkonen. The
race was an emotional roller coaster for ...

Adrian Sutil really put Force India and Kingfisher on the
map with his brilliant performance in Monaco, which sadly ended after he
was knocked out of fourth place by World Champion Kimi Raikkonen. The
race was an emotional roller coaster for everyone in the team, not least
of course Dr Vijay Mallya. We asked him for his thoughts on a memorable
weekend.

Q: You must have gone through every kind of emotion during the Monaco GP.
Looking back, how do you feel about it now?

'We were obviously shattered. We were so looking forward to a spectacular
result, which was not to be. It has however done two things, and we need
to take away the positives. First that Adrian Sutil has a lot of ability
and talent, and we're glad and proud to have him in our team. Some people
started questioning my decision to keep him when he didn't finish a few
races at the start of the season, but I think he has more than redeemed
himself. Secondly I think our strategy and our whole team came together.
The race strategy was right, the set-up was right, and to see a Force
India car running fourth in Monaco was a great pleasure while it lasted.
We were seven minutes from home. It was unfortunate, but I guess that's
what racing is all about. I can't say that I'm not feeling sad, because I
am, but we'll get over it, and we'll take away a lot of positives.'

Q: It was already good when he made it to the points in eighth, so when
he got up to fourth you must have been ecstatic.

'Absolutely! Our strategy was one stop, we filled ourselves up with fuel.
I told both drivers to stay out of trouble on lap one. We have normally
started very well and had incidents on the first lap, so I said stay
right out of trouble, take your time, you're going to go for a one-stop
strategy, bring both cars home. We knew that we were good in the wet,
Adrian has demonstrated that before as well, and everything worked to
perfection until that fateful moment!'

Q: What went through your mind when Adrian had to retire?

'We were well clear of Raikkonen until the safety car came out, and then
we knew that he was going to attack us, so we warned Adrian on the radio
that you have Raikkonen right behind you on your tail. And of course we
didn't want him to get pressured and do anything stupid, because if he
wasn't fourth he would have still finished fifth and that in itself would
have been a huge accomplishment. But you know what happened, Kimi just
rear ended him. It wasn't as if it was an overtaking manoeuvre, something
drastic must have happened, because you wouldn't expect a World Champion
to run into somebody. It was sad for us, that moment was a very emotional
moment.'

Q: Were you almost in tears when it happened?

'I was, and so were many of us actually! I've had quite a lot of SMS
messages and phone calls from supporters in India, all of whom are I
think highly emotional. But such things happen in racing, that's what
I've been telling everyone. F1 wouldn't be F1 if it wasn't as
unpredictable as it is.'

Q: You hosted two big parties on the Indian Empress, and you had a
memorable race. Overall was Monaco a great weekend for you personally,
for the team and for Kingfisher?

'It was a great weekend for us, and what better than to have demonstrated
the improvement in this team as we did.'

Q: Canada is next, another race that often features rain and safety cars.
Do you see it as another good opportunity to score points?

'We don't want to base our earning points on exceptional circumstances.
The team's got to be good and competitive, and that's what we're driving
for, and everyone's doing their best to make that happen. I just hope
that some of these efforts get rewarded soon.'